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Game is pretty fucking good, finished it yesterday. I wasn't expecting much from it, but it really surprised me.

About 12 hours long, but very well paced so it feels like just the right length. Most levels last between 2-3 hours, they're pretty big and long. Linear though, but still fun with lots of secret areas to find. No tons of cutscenes or really long ones either, it's mostly all gameplay; the only long one is in the very beginning when you first enter the town. Nice atmosphere too, especially the parts where you're in the woods unarmed and half to escape from the dark presence.

Combat is solid and challenging. There's no shitty cover system, aiming is done from over-the-shoulder but unlike other games that use it doesn't cover up half the goddamn screen, and health regens so slowly you're pretty much fucked if you let it get low during combat.

All enemies are invincible until you destroy the darkness covering them. You do that by using light, usually with a flashlight; it has a battery count but the battery will recharge slowly unless you fry it in which case you need to change it. You also have flares, as well as flashbangs and flare guns which kill most enemies instantly but those 2 are pretty rare. There are also often environment objects such as searchlights to run to and use.

You can also dodge enemy attacks if you're quick enough but you can't rely solely on it. Alan runs out of breath and begins moving slow as shit if you try to abuse it.

Story is really good, nice lovecraftian vibe going for it, you're being chased by some eldritch abomination the whole game which often flings big fucking cars, trees, and houses at you and generally just tears the shit out of the environment. Makes for nice chase scenes; it has no physical form so you can't fight it. Characters are well written and every one has an important part in the story, none feel tacked on as some shitty extra.

Also, those weird tv shows like what were in Max Payne are in this too, a show called Night Springs which is a homage to The Twilight Zone; tvs that broadcast are found occasionaly throughout the levels; there are also radio shows to listen to. The game also delivers a big "fuck you" to Rockstar for what they're doing to Max Payne.

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It's also very well polished. During my 12 hour playthrough, I didn't encounter a single bug/crash/whatever. Plays very smoothly.

The game also delivers a big "fuck you" to Rockstar for what they're doing to Max Payne.

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Could you please elaborate on that?

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At one point in the game you can turn on a tv and catch an interview Alan did for his latest book, which is the last installment of a series he wrote (called Alex Casey) which is made to be an obvious homage to Max Payne, same story about a vigilante cop whose family was murdered and everything. Anyway, when asked why in the last book Alex Casey is killed off, Alan replies that he's done with that series and doesn't want anymore to do with it.

Alan Wake was written by Sam Lake, same guy who wrote Max Payne1-2 , I personally took it that it was his way of saying that Max Payne is dead to him and that Rockstar's game might as well just be a shitty fanfiction.

1) It's sourced from VGChartz, a notoriously unreliable source of information that relies largely on estimates. Chart Track showed that it topped the UK charts, beating FIFA World Cup 2010, Lost Planet 2, and other high profile releases. I'll wait for info from NPD and other sources before judging its sales.

2) The chart dates range from May 9 to May 15. Alan Wake was released on May 14, and managed to beat every other game for the week.

Alan Wake was written by Sam Lake, same guy who wrote Max Payne1-2 , I personally took it that it was his way of saying that Max Payne is dead to him and that Rockstar's game might as well just be a shitty fanfiction.

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Ah, I see. That's also ironic for them though, seeing as they managed to rape their own game (Alan Wake) before it was even released. Preemptive franchise rape, must be some kind of record.

Alan Wake was written by Sam Lake, same guy who wrote Max Payne1-2 , I personally took it that it was his way of saying that Max Payne is dead to him and that Rockstar's game might as well just be a shitty fanfiction.

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Ah, I see. That's also ironic for them though, seeing as they managed to rape their own game (Alan Wake) before it was even released.

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Ah, just remembered that back in 2005 when AW was first announced they were planning on making it a large open-world sandbox game with lots of NPCs to interact with and lots of buildings to enter and wildlife to explore, like a horror version of GTA set out in the country.

It's not really that uncommon for devs to cut some design ideas out during dev in order to focus mainly on the game's strengths if their original idea was too ambitious a goal for their team to reach with good quality. It's definitely not a "rape", especially considering how good AW turned out in the end.

Alan Wake was written by Sam Lake, same guy who wrote Max Payne1-2 , I personally took it that it was his way of saying that Max Payne is dead to him and that Rockstar's game might as well just be a shitty fanfiction.

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Ah, I see. That's also ironic for them though, seeing as they managed to rape their own game (Alan Wake) before it was even released. Preemptive franchise rape, must be some kind of record.

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Actually, wasn't Bioshock raped as well before it was launched? The original idea was much better than the final product, and I have not tried the sequel but I'm sure it doesn't help.

Old thread and all, but this game is pretty fucking good. The gameplay is good, and the story is really, really well put together. Same Lake is a terrific writer. It's a shame he's not on board for Max Payne 3 and that he hasn't done anything else than video games.

If you guys don't own an Xbox then at least watch an LP or something. You'll get a kick out of the story, it's every bit as good as the storyline in Max Payne.

And yes, the story in Max Payne was fucking awesome, and anyone claiming otherwise (which some of you elitist fucktards are bound to do) needs to smoke a cock.

Alan Wake is fantastico. I went out and bought the collectors edition after I'd finished just because I was so impressed with the writing and combat mechanics. My only complaint is that they abandoned the original open-world srv.hor. design, and also went for the route of spawning dozens of standard enemies instead of more interesting foes like the teleporting minibosses.

Even if the controls are comparatively better than that of Survival Horror games, they still blow. Shit may be better than shit, but it's still shit.

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I never had the slightest problem with them, and bad controls are one of my pet peeves.

Not to mention Alan Wake is really more of an action adventure shoot-em-up with a horror themed story. There haven't really been many survival horror games as of late.

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If you go down the whole "it's more of an action adventure" road then there havn't been many survival horror games period. If Alan Wake isn't a survival horror than neither are the early Resident Evil games, the Silent Hill games, the Dino Crisis series, Deadly Premonition, the Fatal Frame games, the original Parasite Eve et al. Survival Horror would barely constitute a distinct genre at all, consisting of perhaps the Clock Tower series, early Alone in the Dark games and a handful of obscure titles someone'll get butthurt about me not mentioning.

Well what's your definition of survival horror? In Alan Wake, you more or less shoot everything in your path to the next checkpoint, solving a few easy puzzles on the way there.

Also, just to clarify I don't really view the later Resident Evils and Deadly Premonition as survival horror. (Though I guess Deadly Premonition is strictly closer due to having to eat/sleep, but it's mostly an action adventure) I also think the majority of the survival horror genre is pretty bad, lol.